{"id":16793,"date":"2017-03-15T18:15:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T22:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16793"},"modified":"2017-03-15T18:15:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T22:15:12","slug":"brocks-banter-the-noble-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-the-noble-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: The Noble Shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every once in a while we get calls at our office looking for the R&R Book Bar, the former new and used bookstore established by Auroran founder Ron Wallace and Rosemary Schumaker, which used to operate in tandem with the newspaper.
\nWith the bookshop long-since-wound-down, the answer is usually a resounding \u201cno\u201d when a potential customer calls to see if we have a particular Tom Clancy or \u201cJacqueline Susann\u2019s latest,\u201d which always struck me as an interesting request since the Valley of the Dolls author died in 1974.
\nSometimes, however, requests prove to be more interesting when callers have a backstory.
\nTake Friday, for instance.
\nI received a call asking whether we had any further copies of Elizabeth Hearn Milner\u2019s \u201cAurora 1945 \u2013 1965: An Ontario Town at a Time of Great Change.\u201d
\nAs the title suggests, the 2007 volume charts the postwar history of Aurora from the long wait for peace to laying the foundations of the Aurora Community Centre, a project for Canada\u2019s Centennial.
\nHappily, I was able to direct my caller to a place likely to have a few volumes on the shelf \u2013 the Aurora Historical Society \u2013 but, as she spoke, I realised she had a very personal reason for wanting the book. Her grandfather, she explained, was James Murray, who served as Aurora\u2019s mayor from 1957 to 1960.
\nShe spoke vividly of memories from visiting her family here, of the Town itself, of the Queen\u2019s Hotel, which once stood on the northeast corner of Yonge and Wellington on the current side of TD Canada Trust, and the IGA grocery store in behind it.
\nOn her visits, just about everything east of the tracks was farmland, she recalled, and, of course, there was no Highway 404 to speak of.
\nIt is a lost world, but still very much in the minds of many.
\nIn some ways, if she hadn\u2019t been back to Aurora since the time her grandfather served on Council, there would some easily recognizable landmarks. Aside from the banks on the northern corners, Yonge and Wellington hasn\u2019t changed all that much, nor have the homes in the immediate vicinity. But anything further east? Well, that would have been inconceivable.
\nHearn Milner characterizes the Aurora of 1945-1965 as \u201cAn Ontario Town at a Time of Great Change, but I think that title could also be applied to a future historian\u2019s look at the Aurora of 2017 and beyond.
\nIf anyone happened to have stepped out of the Aurora experience at the end of 1965, they would be hard pressed to believe some of the changes that have taken place. One such case \u2013 as Scott notes this week \u2013 might be that their brand-new state-of-the-art library would soon be meeting a wrecking ball, having outlived its usefulness, becoming an increasingly dilapidated relic of the past.
\nIt would be mind-blowing to stand by the GO tracks and look towards the bustling metropolis heading east. They probably wouldn\u2019t be able to comprehend that their Regency Acres bungalow, perhaps once a starter home, was now be subject to bidding wars with potential homeowners snagging them for upwards of $1 million.
\nThen, of course, there is the political side of things.
\nThere once was a time where the very idea of a \u201csanctuary city\u201d would have been inconceivable \u2013 both in intent, and in the fact there is a need for such a body to even exist. Yet, that is the world we live in.
\nMany of you will recall a brief debate which happened around the Council table at the end of January after the City of Toronto reaffirmed its status as a sanctuary city rejecting \u201cdiscrimination based on religious, ethnic, or national origin, affirms that refugees are welcome in our communities, and [Council] stands united with cities around the world against Islamophobia, xenophobia and racism, and calls on Canadians, community leaders, and elected officials to speak out against racial discrimination and hate in our communities, across the country and around the world.\u201d
\nAlthough people debate the merits of a \u201csanctuary city\u201d both within and outside of these pages, I think most people here in Aurora would agree with the firm stance against these \u201cphobias\u201d and \u201cisms\u201d of every variety, and stand united against racial discrimination and hate.
\nBrought to the attention of local lawmakers by Councillor Humfryes, who called on Council to endorse it, I thought it was going to be a slam dunk. After all, Aurora routinely endorses motions sent to them from other municipalities, whether or not they have any bearing at all on Aurora, and regardless of frivolity.
\nIn the end, I was disappointed that was not the case as Council got bogged down in the minutia, pondering just what impacts endorsing Toronto\u2019s status as a sanctuary city would have on Aurora and, God forbid, questioning the wisdom of giving a thumbs-up to a motion some could see as reactionary and \u201canti-Trump.\u201d
\nAnd, so it was. Now, next month lawmakers will consider a motion from Councillor Gaertner that is a well-intentioned \u2013 although considerably defanged \u2013 stop gap.
\nIt affirms that Aurora is a community that welcomes diversity, recognizes the strength that comes out of diversity, and that we\u2019re a community that \u201crejects intolerance based on race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation.\u201d
\nThe intent of the motion is noble, and it is just one stitch in a larger tapestry that is being woven right before our eyes.
\nAs Aurora continues to grapple with the future of Library Square, Downtown Revitalization, and how to make sure all resources are present and accounted for as it reaches build out, there is a subtle shift in focus towards looking at the kind of town Aurora wants to be.
\nWe have new bylaws ensuring street front signage for local businesses is at least 50 per cent in one of two Canada\u2019s official languages, motions like Councillor Gaertner\u2019s, and public meetings to gather as wide a cross-section of input as possible ensuring this year\u2019s Multicultural Festival ticks all the right boxes.
\nIn cases like these, I often wonder how the actions of today will be interpreted by the people of tomorrow.
\nIn her latest book, An Aurora ABC: Stories from Aurora\u2019s Forgotten past, local historian Jacqueline Stuart tells the story of an Asian laundryman in turn-of-the-century Aurora and to what degree he was accepted by the community. Then, of course, there are the plights of countless nameless Aurorans whose stories will inevitably be left untold; individuals who went about their daily business effectively and efficiently, but bristling under the collar feeling unable to practice their own religion, love who they truly loved, or live the way they truly wanted to live, for fear of going against the grain.
\nThey are concepts that will, one hopes, be increasingly difficult for future generations to comprehend, and these stitches will go a long way in achieving this goal, as long as they are embraced and fostered by the community.
\nWe have the building blocks and, collectively, we have the power to write the next chapter.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Every once in a while we get calls at our office looking for the R&R Book Bar, the former new and used bookstore established by Auroran founder Ron Wallace and Rosemary Schumaker, which used to operate in tandem with the newspaper. With the bookshop long-since-wound-down, the answer is usually a resounding \u201cno\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4mR","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 11:33:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}